A Study Of Genet’s Novels In The Perspective Of Queer Theory

This thesis aims to analyze the space,morality,gender and scaredness systematically in the most representative three novels written by Genet from the perspective of Queer Theory,so as to explore the inner relations between those novels and the author.The first chapter of this essay combs theoretical origin of Queer Theory and the application model of Queer Theory in the field of literary criticism,and clarifies the significance and values of Queer Theory into the study of Genet’s works.The relationship between queer theory and sociology,and the study of gay and feminist is the reason why Queer theory is misunderstood and even opposed.The second chapter analyzes the three different spatial order in Genet’s novels: the surveillance space,the open space and the private space.These three types of spatial order all reflect a kind of new order pursued by Genet which is contrary to the Christian morality.The relationship between space and power revealed by Genet and the morality that he wants to establish have a commonality with social culture norms and enquiry spirit expressed by Queer theory.At the same time,the moral order depicted in Genet’s novels encounters the same dilemmas and doubts as Queer theory.The last Chapter mainly combines the theory of gender mobility and re-signification in Queer Theory to inquire the three levels of gender disintegration in the novels:performative,re-signification and sacredness.In repetitive and compulsory social norms,gender is formed through the repetition of behavior,and it is shaped by repetitive citations and repetitive practices of a series of actions shared by society.That a man is disguised as a woman shows a stereotyped image of the female character in the heterosexual world.However,when the male imitates the gender,the performance exposes the imitative structure of the gender itself.The interaction between the self and the other achieves the flow of gender identity,and at the same time,Genet challenges the traditional view of gender dichotomy.